At the Garron Pill end, gulls initially resting on the water
in the Pill included 200+ LBBGs, a gradual build-up of a few hundred BHGs and small numbers of HGs. At around dusk and just afterwards, all the
BHGs started to move up channel, passed Caroline's watch-point at Llangwm Ferry
crossing, seemingly heading in the direction of Sprinkle Pill. Before dusk, Caroline
had seen small numbers of BHG apparently heading up Llangwm Pill. Possibly these were taking an overland route, perhaps towards
Milford Haven? All bar 32 LBBGs moved off up channel from Garron Pill, but a
bit later than the BHGs. A few Herring Gulls also appeared to be staying to
roost at Garron.
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| The WinGS Daugleddau section |
In total there could have been at least c.1,500 BHGs and c.400
LBBGs roosting in the Daugleddau section, plus an additional c.500 hundred unidentified
gulls that Annie watched from her observation point at Landshipping. These gulls
drifted down-stream on the falling tide from
the Western Cleddau zone as it got quite dark.
Just before dusk, an Osprey circled over Lawrenny
Wood and probably roosted there, having probably come from the Carew/Cresswell direction.
It seemed to spook the BHGs especially and might have influenced (or hastened)
their departure upstream.
On 2 October Annie and I did a WinGS survey of the
Carew/Crewell system; no gull roosts there at all and no sign of an osprey
either!
Last night, we went down to the Martello Tower, near Pembroke
Dockyard to count roosting gulls in Milford
Haven Waterway between there and approximately Wear Point on the opposite side
of the channel. We counted at least 2,200 BHGs (a similar total to one
we had for the January WinGS). It was getting too dark to see much by 19:20hrs
when we left, but gulls were still flying in, so our count was an absolute
minimum.
Numbers of Black-headed gulls started to build up a couple of hrs before dusk at Front Street. Some might have roosted close to here, but most are likely to have joined the main roost just south of the Dockyard
We could not see any obvious Mediterranean Gulls in the
roost, nor any Common Gulls. About 25 HGs roosted with the BHGs. Most
of the HGs (at least a couple of hundred
or more) and a small number of LBBGs flew down channel to roost at another
location. On Monday evening this week,
Jane Hodges, from the Milford Marina-side (but no gulls roosting there) observed c.400
HGs and a few LBBGs that appeared to go to roost on the Valero jetty, where perhaps some of last night’s birds might also have been heading to.
There was quite a nice industrial scene sunset over Valero